Hi Dan, I have been evolving a dust collection system for a couple of years now. I started with a big shop vacuum and a network of 2 inch plastic ducts which very soon proved to be inadequate. I included a can lid style cyclone separator which worked sort of reasonably well but the main frustration was trying to keep the vacuum filter from plugging up. Opening the machine and trying to knock the dust away from it scattered it about the place and dumping the bucket only partially improved when I dropped a garbage bag into it. I had to drop a square of half inch plywood into the bottom of the bag to keep it from being sucked tight around the filter and two inches of duct well!
I then bought a Delta dust collector. The filter bag is said to filter down to 1 micron and I upgraded to 4 inch duct however so far the best I have been able to do is ribbed flexible hose. What I want is some of that Nordfab Quick Fit snap together stuff. The pipe is rolled back at the ends and fitted together with neoprene sleeves. It is terribly expensive though and i. can only find one supplier in Canada way over in Vancouver. Last time I priced what I thought I wanted it came to something like $1,300 . I want to link it to an automated blastgate system something like the Ecogate system. It can sense which machine is running and open the appropriate blastgate and when the last machine is shut off it continues to run long enough to clear the ducts. That is another 800 bucks or better.Don't remember exactly what I paid for the Delta dust collector but I think it was around 400 bucks and I have the Lee Valley Dust filter hanging down there as well. I don't think I am buying the Nordfab ducts, more probably I'll go for some PVC. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Rossi To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 10:39 AM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Shop dust collection information. Dale, this was a great read, although very disheartening. It makes it seem nearly impossible for a home DIY guy to size, build, and maintain a decent fine dust filter system. 800 CFM would exchange the entire volume of air in my basement every five minutes. I realize how important dust collection is, but 6 inch diameter piping, 5 and 8 HP motors, 14 inch blowers. WOW! I'd have more invested in dust collection than in tools. Great read though and since I have virtually no dust collection at the moment, it will give me pause next time I start working in the basement again. Maybe I'll just install some radiant heaters under my deck and only work outside. Of course, since my head clearance under the deck ranges from about 5 inches to negative 2 inches, I might occasionally set my hair on fire with the radiant heaters, but there's not all that much left to set on fire anyway, so guess that isn't soo bad. -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (412) 268-9081 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
